Bottle closures



Aug. 28, 1962 E. l. PAPPAS BOTTLE CLOSURES 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 7, 1960 FlG.l

FIG.4

INVENTOR. EDWARD PAPPAS Aug. 28, 1962 E. l. PAPPAS BOTTLE CLOSURES Filed Nov. 7, 1960 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 EDWARD l. PAPPAS Aug. 28, 1962 E. l. PAPPAS 3,051,343-

BOTTLE CLOSURES Filed Nov. 7, 1960 s Sheets-Sheet 5 FIG. l0 FIG. ll

INVENTOR EDWARD LPAPPAS United States Patent Oflfice 3,051,343 Patented Aug. 28, 1962 3,051,343 BOTTLE CLOSURES Edward I. Pappas, 1521 Argonne Drive, Baltimore, Md.

Filed Nov. 7, 1960, Ser. No. 67,857

3 Claims. (Cl. 21552) This invention relates generally to bottle stoppers, and more particularly it relates to expansion type closure seals for narrow neck containers. This application is a continuation-in-part of US. patent application Serial Number 715,330, filed February 14, 1958, for Bottle Closure, now abandoned.

In the practice of bottle sealing with the customary crown type metallic caps, considerable effort is made to provide a non-corrosive, non-taste imparting closure. To this end, various resilient disks are used together with foil or other material in continuation as a liner. The metal cap is pressed to the bottle top compressing the resilient disks and crimped around a bead lip to retain the pressure seal. An objection to this type of seal is that the seal proper is confined to but a small circular area along the top rim. Furthermore, the crimping of the cap sides provides no seal therealong and often re sults in broken bottles. And again the crimped sides provide no sanitary protection to the outside of the bottle lip.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide an improved container stopper.

Another object of this invention is to provide a container stopper with an extended sealing area.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a container cap or closure which can be made easily removable.

Even yet another object of this invention is to provide a bottle capping means having outside sealing and protecting features.

These and other objects and attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily apparent and understood from the accompanying specifications and drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal section of the stopper embodying the features of this invention taken along line 11 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view of the stopper of FIG. 1; a

FIG. 3 is a side section view showing the installed stopper on a bottle together with a puncturing means therefor;

FIG. 4 is a section view of the stopper in place on a can;

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal section of another embodiment of an inflated closure;

FIG. 6 is an exploded view in vertical section of the components of the closure shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a longitudinal section similar to FIG. 5 illustrating the conformation of an inflatable rim to the external thread of a bottle neck;

FIG. 8 is a longitudinal section similar to FIG. 5 illustrating the conformation of an inflatable plug to internal sealing grooves in a bottle neck;

FIG. 9 is a vertical section, partly broken away, of a stopper for rectangular mouthed containers, the view being taken in a plane extending between diagonally opposite corners;

FIG. 10 is a longitudinal section of the embodiment of the invention showing a bottle cap incorporating novel negative pressure sealing features and illustrating the cap in the unsealed condition;

FIG. 11 is a longitudinal section of the cap of FIG. 10 in the process of being sealed; and

FIG. 12 is a longitudinal section of a pneumatic bottle stopper with added pressurizing and sealing features.

Referring now to FIG. 1, the reference numeral 100 designates a stopper in general, constructed entirely of a resilient plastic. This stopper 100 consists of a top 102 having a circular recess defined by an inner wall 110 and having a space 106 for the lip of a bottleneck 112, shown in FIG. 3. An insert 104 is centrally attached therein and has a hollow inside 108 which is subsequently filled with a gas such as air under pressure. The cap top 102 and insert 104 are dimensioned to fit tightly inside and out of the bottleneck 112 having a lip 114, as illustrated in FIG. 3. The invention is shown in FIG. 4 alternatively attached to a can 116 having a lip 118.

In FIGS. 3 and 4, there are illustrated how closely the inner wall 110 wraps itself around the bottle lips 114 and 118, and how the gas-filled insert 104 contacts the inside of bottlenecks 112 or 116, respectively, over a relatively large area when inserted therein. It is intended that a pin 120, or other sharp object be used to puncture the cap top 102 to release the gas and thus facilitates the removal of the stopper 100.

The insert 104 is filled with a gas under pressure by conventional means. For example, a hot needle having a passageway therein and connected to a suitable source of air pressure can be used. The hot needle is passed through the top 102 of the stopper into the space 106 after the uninfiated stopper has been placed on the bottleneck 112 or can 116. After sufiicient air under pressure has been introduced into the space 106, the hot needle is withdrawn and the material of the stopper 100 is chilled to seal the small opening formed by the needle in the top 102 of the stopper. It is to be pointed out that there may "be some loss of gas pressure from the space 106 during the sealing of the opening in the top 102 of the stopper 100. However, sufficient gas will be introduced into the space 106, of the stopper 100 so that the desired pressure is obtained even though there is a small loss of air pressure due to leakage.

In addition to the large sealing area possessed by stopper 100, a further advantage can be seen in which the inner wall of the stopper or cap protects the bottle lip 114 from contamination when the bottle is used directly as a drinking vessel. Furthermore, the resilient character of the stopper 100 protects against bottle top breakage.

Referring now to FIG. 5, the reference numeral 200 designates a stopper in general constructed partly of resilient plastic and partly of a hard plastic. This stopper essentially consists of a hard cap 202 and a soft insert 204. The hard cap 202 is made in the form of a hollow ring having a top center aperture 224 and a bottom center aperture 226. The latter aperture 226 of the cap 202 is dimensioned to pass easily over the lip 214 of a bottleneck 212.

For purposes of easy fabrication, the soft insert 204 is made in two parts as shown in the exploded view of FIG. 6. The lower portion of the insert 204 is formed to provide an inflatable center plug 208 and a coaxially surrounding inflatable rim 210 so as to define a perimetral space 206 for the top lip 214 of the bottle 212. A flat cemented-on puncturalble top 222 makes the entire assembled insert 204 a pneumatically tight single chamber.

Since the insert 204 as a whole is soft and easily deformable, it can be pressed through the lower aperture 226 to rest Within the hard top 202, with its top 222 exposed through the top aperture 226 of cap 202 as shown in FIG. 5. In place on the bottleneck 212 and inflated with a hollow needle, the inflatable plug 208 expands to tightly hug the inside of the bottleneck 212. The inflatable rim 210 being confined in the hard cap 202, can expand only inwardly around the lip 21 4 of the bottleneck 212 tightly conforming thereto.

If the bottle has cap threads 230, as shown in FIG. 7,

the inflated inner wall 228 of the rim 210 takes on the matching conformation with perfect thread fit. If the bottleneck 212 is provided with an inner peripheral groo've 232, as shown in FIG. 8 or an inner circumferential head 234, as shown in FIG. 12, the inflated plug 208 will conform thereto and provide additional sealing and holding qualities therearound. Thus, it can be seen that the important feature of the novel inflatable cap principle is the ability to conform to shape and even to fill noncircular pouring spouts and the corners of rectangularmouthed containers.

An example of the latter application is illustrated in FIG. 9 where there is shown a square-mouthed container 240 with one side corner broken away. It is apparent how the inflatable plug 208 expands into an inside vertical corner 236 and how tightly the inflatable rim 210 hugs the outside vertical corner 238 of the container 240. For this application the general shape of the stopper 200 may be square instead of cylindrical although perfect fit in the uninflated condition is unnecessary. The actuating force for stopping of stopper may be provided by negative pressure.

In the embodiment of the closure 250 shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, the plug member 208 previously described is replaced by a plastic bellows 252. Negative pressure introduced by means of a hollow needle 254 will cause the bellows 252 to shorten as shown in FIG. 11 with consequent gross peripheral enlargement.

The bellows 252 can be made to even more firmly contact the inside of bottleneck 212 by constructing its bottom end with a re-entrant wedge or cone member 256. This member 256 when drawn up by negative pressure introduced by needle 254 will force the folds of the bellows 252 outwardly providing multiple annular contact with the inside of the bottleneck 212.

To make the wedging force distribute more effectively, the inside of the bellows 252 may be made in corresponding taper to that of the cone member 256 as illustrated. In some sizes of bottle caps, the cone 256 may be caused to form automatically from the sucked-in bottom of the bellows 252.

As will now occur to those skilled in the art, the bottom of the previously mentioned plug 208, can be thickened as shown in FIG. 8, or dished as shown in FIG. 12 to act as a piston head for augmenting the side wall flow and fit of the plug 208 within the bottleneck 212 by stretching or constricting the plastic material thereof.

As depicted in FIG. 12, the puncturable top may consist of a soft area 262 in a hard-rimmed cap 264 fused or otherwise blended-in during the casting thereof. With the inflatable plug 208 secured directly to the inside of the cap 264 a simple yet effective puncturable stopper 260 results.

Obviously, many other modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above teachings. It is, therefore, to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination, a container having an annular lip defining an opening, and a stopper closure for closing said opening in said container, said closure consisting of a resilient structure of a permeable elastic material delining a top having an annular flange extending outwardly and substantially angularly therefrom at substantially the edge periphery thereof, and deformable insert consisting of an inflatable center plug for closing said opening and a spaced coaxially surrounding inflatalble rim defining a perimetral space for said annular lip of said container, said inflatable plug forming a closed chamber with said top.

2. A stopper closure for a container having an annular lip enclosing an opening therein, comprising, a resilient structure defining a substantially hard top with a permeable elastic portion positioned therein and having an annular flange extending outwardly and substantially angularly therefrom at substantially the edge periphery thereof, and a deformable insert consisting of an inflatable center plug for closing said opening and a spaced coaxially surrounding inflatable r-im defining a perimetral space for said annular lip of said container, said inflatable plug forming a closed chamber with said top.

3. A stopper closure for a container having an annular lip enclosing an opening therein, comprising, a resilient structure defining a top having at least a portion thereof formed of a permeable elastic material and having an annular flange extending outwardly and substantially angularly therefrom at substantially the edge periphery thereof, and a deformable insert consisting of a deflatable bellows shaped center plug for closing said opening and sealing the inner surface of said opening at a plurality of spaced intervals, said deflatable plug forming a closed chamber with said top.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,115,035 Morgan Apr. 26, 1938 2,830,722 Darmstadt Apr. 15, 1958 2,880,900 Foye- Apr. 7, 1959 

